Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to support this Bill in the name of Deputy Anne Ferris. When I think of a subject such as this I think of the German Chancellor in the 19th century, Bismarck, who first introduced a widespread scheme of pension provision, partly to halt the rise of the Social Democrats there. His assumption was that people would live for three years after they retired. Clearly, we have got well beyond that. On average, people live way beyond three years into retirement. There is a real issue here. One could tie that in with the pensions time bomb. By far the largest spend in the Department of Social Protection is on pensions. If people are willing and able, it is important that they be allowed to work beyond the traditional pensionable age of 65 or 66, even though I recognise and voted for the legislation which is gradually leading to a higher pensionable age for people to begin retirement.

When thinking about the Bill, I had in mind politicians who worked well beyond pensionable age. The record is mixed. There are definitely people who did their countries great service beyond pensionable age, but there are also cases in which people hung on too long. One has only to think of De Valera. Even if one was an admirer, which I was never brought up to be, one would have to say he hung on too long as Taoiseach, until the age of 78. As against that, Churchill led Britain as a pensioner during the Second World War. While he did not do a good job in the 1950s, he certainly did a good job in the 1940s. In Finland the Finns diligently elected President Kekkonen because they knew he had the talent to prevent the USSR, as it then was, from encroaching on the rights of the people of Finland. He held office until he was in his late 70s or 80s. I said the record is mixed.

There is a point at which people should retire. It is hard to put a fixed age on it, as people age at different speeds. There are people, unfortunately, who want to work when they are incapable of doing the job they were once able to do. In our thoughts on this subject, we need to be sure it is possible to retire people when they are incapable of doing the job as well as they used to. It is important also to recognise the needs of younger people as they come into the market and to make space for them to get involved. That is, perhaps, an even more important point now. The world is changing so much because of the advance of technology that in many cases younger people are better placed to contribute on that front. A balance is required here. Clearly there is a need to allow people work beyond the traditional retirement age, but also we have to ensure that when people are no longer capable of doing the job properly they must retire. Most people will recognise that, but occasionally there are people who do not, and we have to ensure that is allowed for. In the broad sense, I support the Bill.

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